Political Irony

4 Comments

1. chinagreenelvis wrote:

   I’m starting to see a strong narrative in place. The story goes like this:

   “People (presumably right-wingers) in high and low places who once touted ‘small government’ are now flip-flopping and calling for government intervention in light of the oil spill. Also, they are blaming Obama for it.”

   Long story short: everyone on the right is a hypocrite and a cheap-shooter.

   Am I the only one that feels that this narrative – which seems to be quickly saturating the left – not only goes too far in oversimplifying things, but also paints a picture that doesn’t necessarily exist on the scale that it would have us subscribe to?

   For instance, I’ve often found that if you want to illustrate “hypocrisy” amongst ideological lines, all you have to do is show one Republican representative saying one thing, and then show any given Republican representative saying something that opposes the first viewpoint, preferably months or years after the first statement was made.

   The inherent flaw in this kind of presentation is that although it can be a clear example of hypocrisy when you show the exact same individual making contradicting statements (given that the full context of each statement is understood), using examples of different people registered with the same party is a highly effective yet substantially poor substitute.

   With that in mind, I’d like to see some real examples that support the current narrative. Bonus points if they don’t rely on clips from Fox News. (I think we know by now that they neither represent a coherent body of views nor do they hold themselves to make statements which reflect thought and reason. They’ll basically say or suggest anything on the fly as long as it has a chance of stirring the pot.)

   Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 9:27 am | Permalink
2. Iron Knee wrote:

   It seems like you are doing the same thing that you are complaining about. I’ve never said or even thought that everyone on the right is a hypocrite. What I do believe is that the current political strategy of opposing every single thing Obama does is leading followers of that strategy to do and say more than their share of hypocritical things. This is just one example of it.

   Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 10:17 am | Permalink
3. chinagreenelvis wrote:

   I’m confused by your response – you don’t need to defend yourself. It sounds like you’re taking my observations as a criticism of your individual activity, but when I say “narrative” I definitely mean one that exists between the lines across the board, not, say, the narrative of politicalirony.com. I apologize if it sounded that way, but what I’m referring to isn’t something that’s coming from you, just something that’s more or less “out there.”

   These cartoons, for instance. You didn’t draw them, all you’re doing is posting them. But they’re coming from different artists with different things to say. When you start to put them together into a big picture (along with cartoons and commentaries from other sources), you might begin to see what I’m getting at.

   Friday, June 18, 2010 at 9:34 am | Permalink
4. chinagreenelvis wrote:

   This particular cartoon presents the ideas in the most abstract manner I’ve seen so far. It’s much less a criticism of anything specific, but more of an amalgam of the ideas that have begun to be presented from those who have been critical. My fear is that when the ideas become too broad, it’s easy to begin to basically paint a picture that doesn’t necessarily exist. It’s an overblown game of “connect the arbitrarily related dots.”

   Yes, by saying that there is a narrative in place, I too am connecting similar dots, but if prompted I’ll gladly put sources and a presentation together. I could easily begin such a task with a few of the comics displayed here. Still, I asked that the same be done from the other perspective first. 😀

   I’d like to see real examples that support the idea of anti-government groups or individuals criticizing the government for not stepping in and saving us from the oil spill, and I’d like to see some real examples of those same people (or others) literally blaming Obama for the disaster.

   I could go out and search for them, but I just want to make it clear that my intention was to start a discussion about it here.

   Friday, June 18, 2010 at 9:43 am | Permalink